A variety of systems have been developed over time for enabling mobile communications. Two-way radios, “walkie talkies”, and the like, were the first widespread wireless devices that allowed individuals located remote from one another to share voice communications. Each user tunes their device to a dedicated frequency, where half-duplex transmissions are shared. Prior to the development of cellular networks, communication via two-way radios was limited by the strength of the transmission signal from the device and the particular frequency used, among other factors. Cellular networks have been able to overcome these obstacles by employing a set of distributed stations, each having a transmitter. As the user's radio device moves between coverage areas of adjacent stations, transmissions from and to the radio device are handled by the transmitter/receiver of the closest distributed station. In the case of a cellular telephone network, the distributed station or “base station” is connected with a telephone network switch so that both half-duplex and full-duplex transmissions from a mobile cellular telephone may be carried across the telephone network backbone.
With the advances made in mobile communications technology, users are now demanding more robust features for their wireless devices. For instance, there is a desire to facilitate voice communications among a group of individuals who are engaged in certain sporting activities. While modern mobile telephones and telephone network-based radio devices are typically small enough for the user to carry or place in their pocket, there can difficulty in initiating a communications transmission depending on the current activity of the user (e.g., a skier or snowboarder in motion) and the gear worn by the individual (e.g., an insulated coat and gloves). This can have a detrimental effect on the spontaneity of a communications session, as the user often has to remove some of their gear or otherwise break from their current activity in order to access their communications device. Furthermore, if the user does not realize a transmission from another user has been received on their device, or is not in a position to “answer” the communication, the requesting user is only left to speculate as to why the non-answering user is not available for a communications session. Thus, there is a desire to provide requesting users with additional information as to why a particular user being requested for a communications session is unavailable. Furthermore, there is a desire to monitor the movement performance of an individual engaged in a sporting activity and share such performance data with others.